-
Articles/Ads
Article ARCHITECTURAL LONDON IN 1884. ← Page 2 of 3 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Architectural London In 1884.
interesting * individuality of character previously alluded to . The dingy old monotonous brick is , indeed , already fast disappearing , to be replaced by handsomer structures , not of the sham stucco , like Regent-street , but buildings of real stone , enriched with iulays or columns of jjolished granite ,
marble , or terra-cotta , and decorated with real sculpture of great artistic merit , and of suitable character , as to its symbols , foliated decorations , or statuary . That this will be the case we may infer from the Music Hall , now advancing towards completionin the Straud ; in the facade of which
, well-sculptured busts of the greatest musicians , and other appropriate emblems , enter into the composition , which , notwithstanding many drawbacks , is really a very striking one . To return to the commencement of the great Strand line . It may be taken for granted that
the shabby houses forming the only remaining side of Cockspur-street will , in twenty years , have entirely disappeared , and have been replaced by edifices worthy to form the south side of Trafalgarsquare . The new south side will probably be then made to run due east and westso as nearly
, to complete the quadrangle , leaving * at the south-west corner an open space for a pair of magnificent gates forming * a Spring-garden entrance to St . James's Park . On the north side of
Trafalgar-square the present National Gallery will be improved by the erection of an additional storey , enriched with columns , after the manner of the " Garde Meubles , " of the Place de la Concorde ; or an entirely new and more magnificent building will arise , really worthy of the name of a " British
National Gallery , " which will occupy the entire space of the barracks in the rear , making the building form itself into a noble quadrangle , equal in every respect to that of the new portion of the Louvre . The northern , and the new southern approaches , from the west to the City , next invite consideration . Of the new and convenient southern
roadway , on the Southwark side of the river , it only need be remarked that the roadway itself is now complete that a double line of handsome houses cannot fail to spring up very rapidly in a thoroughfare that must become a most important one and that the opening of this new line of street has
already greatly eased the pressure oi the traffic along tho old line of road to the London Bridge Railway Stations . The northern line , that of Holborn , has a more remarkable future in store for it . A greater part of the line ( allowing the impedimental Middle-row to have already
disappeared ) is of noble width and when some strong stimulus shall have been applied which will induce proprietors to replace the present houses by a superior class of structures , it will at once assume an importance which ifc has never enjoyed before . The creation of New Oxford-street was the first instalment towards the creation of an entirely new era for the Holborn Hue but a far more important
improvement is now about to be immediately realised in the construction of the great Holbornvalley viaduct , which will bridge over the ancient valley of the Fleet ditch , and at once put an end to that severe hill work , both on the Holborn and Skinner-street side , which has so long been the
dread of both horses and drivers , and ruinously destructive , in the form of severe wear and tear , to vehicles of all classes . The viaduct , as now proposed to be carried out ( by means of the Cur ' s share in the coal duties ) , is one of the largest undertakings * that was ever
projected for the improvement of a metropolis . The improvement will , in fact , consist of the utterly pulling down and rebuilding of a mass of habitations equal in extent to a moderate sized county town . That is to say , nearly the whole of the buildings on both sides of Holborn-hill all the way from Hatton-garden to Farringdon-street , and those on both sides of Skinner-street from
Farrmgdon-street to Newgate-street , with many others , will have to be taken down . The viaduct itself will be constructed at such an elevation as will make the continuous roadway nearly a dead level from the high ground at Fumivat's Inn tb the corresponding height in the neighbourhood of News-ate .
The ground on either side will be leased for building shops and houses of a superior description aud if the character of the viaduct itself , and the new buildings connected with it , be at all equal to that of the elevations shown in the designs sent in by several of the . competitors , this new
portion of the great northern artery of metropolitan communication between the West-end and the City may be made to form one of the most remarkable objects in the street architecture of Europe . This stimulus given to the architecture of Holborn will doubtless spread epidemicall
y along Oxford-street , and in the twenty years specified nearly the whole of the low and mean buildings which still remain in that important thoroughfare will have been replaced by others fully equal to those which w e shall doubtless see occupying the whole of the Strand and Holboz-n lines .
Not only the great changes referred to , but many others of scarcely secondary importance , will have taken place within the time specified and our young architects , who are yearly becoming more original in the treatment of their works , and are shaking themselves more and more free from
the enervating coils of that slavish imitation into which the beauties of Mediaeval monuments had seduced them , will embellish street after street with lines of noble houses , each of which will be , in every sense of the word , an architectural study . And not only will the dingy old brick and the unartisoic stucco be abandoned in favour of stone
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Architectural London In 1884.
interesting * individuality of character previously alluded to . The dingy old monotonous brick is , indeed , already fast disappearing , to be replaced by handsomer structures , not of the sham stucco , like Regent-street , but buildings of real stone , enriched with iulays or columns of jjolished granite ,
marble , or terra-cotta , and decorated with real sculpture of great artistic merit , and of suitable character , as to its symbols , foliated decorations , or statuary . That this will be the case we may infer from the Music Hall , now advancing towards completionin the Straud ; in the facade of which
, well-sculptured busts of the greatest musicians , and other appropriate emblems , enter into the composition , which , notwithstanding many drawbacks , is really a very striking one . To return to the commencement of the great Strand line . It may be taken for granted that
the shabby houses forming the only remaining side of Cockspur-street will , in twenty years , have entirely disappeared , and have been replaced by edifices worthy to form the south side of Trafalgarsquare . The new south side will probably be then made to run due east and westso as nearly
, to complete the quadrangle , leaving * at the south-west corner an open space for a pair of magnificent gates forming * a Spring-garden entrance to St . James's Park . On the north side of
Trafalgar-square the present National Gallery will be improved by the erection of an additional storey , enriched with columns , after the manner of the " Garde Meubles , " of the Place de la Concorde ; or an entirely new and more magnificent building will arise , really worthy of the name of a " British
National Gallery , " which will occupy the entire space of the barracks in the rear , making the building form itself into a noble quadrangle , equal in every respect to that of the new portion of the Louvre . The northern , and the new southern approaches , from the west to the City , next invite consideration . Of the new and convenient southern
roadway , on the Southwark side of the river , it only need be remarked that the roadway itself is now complete that a double line of handsome houses cannot fail to spring up very rapidly in a thoroughfare that must become a most important one and that the opening of this new line of street has
already greatly eased the pressure oi the traffic along tho old line of road to the London Bridge Railway Stations . The northern line , that of Holborn , has a more remarkable future in store for it . A greater part of the line ( allowing the impedimental Middle-row to have already
disappeared ) is of noble width and when some strong stimulus shall have been applied which will induce proprietors to replace the present houses by a superior class of structures , it will at once assume an importance which ifc has never enjoyed before . The creation of New Oxford-street was the first instalment towards the creation of an entirely new era for the Holborn Hue but a far more important
improvement is now about to be immediately realised in the construction of the great Holbornvalley viaduct , which will bridge over the ancient valley of the Fleet ditch , and at once put an end to that severe hill work , both on the Holborn and Skinner-street side , which has so long been the
dread of both horses and drivers , and ruinously destructive , in the form of severe wear and tear , to vehicles of all classes . The viaduct , as now proposed to be carried out ( by means of the Cur ' s share in the coal duties ) , is one of the largest undertakings * that was ever
projected for the improvement of a metropolis . The improvement will , in fact , consist of the utterly pulling down and rebuilding of a mass of habitations equal in extent to a moderate sized county town . That is to say , nearly the whole of the buildings on both sides of Holborn-hill all the way from Hatton-garden to Farringdon-street , and those on both sides of Skinner-street from
Farrmgdon-street to Newgate-street , with many others , will have to be taken down . The viaduct itself will be constructed at such an elevation as will make the continuous roadway nearly a dead level from the high ground at Fumivat's Inn tb the corresponding height in the neighbourhood of News-ate .
The ground on either side will be leased for building shops and houses of a superior description aud if the character of the viaduct itself , and the new buildings connected with it , be at all equal to that of the elevations shown in the designs sent in by several of the . competitors , this new
portion of the great northern artery of metropolitan communication between the West-end and the City may be made to form one of the most remarkable objects in the street architecture of Europe . This stimulus given to the architecture of Holborn will doubtless spread epidemicall
y along Oxford-street , and in the twenty years specified nearly the whole of the low and mean buildings which still remain in that important thoroughfare will have been replaced by others fully equal to those which w e shall doubtless see occupying the whole of the Strand and Holboz-n lines .
Not only the great changes referred to , but many others of scarcely secondary importance , will have taken place within the time specified and our young architects , who are yearly becoming more original in the treatment of their works , and are shaking themselves more and more free from
the enervating coils of that slavish imitation into which the beauties of Mediaeval monuments had seduced them , will embellish street after street with lines of noble houses , each of which will be , in every sense of the word , an architectural study . And not only will the dingy old brick and the unartisoic stucco be abandoned in favour of stone